Catholic Churches of NCC includes: Saint Patrick Parish Seneca WI; Saint Philip Parish Rolling Ground WI; Saint Mary Parish Gays Mills WI; St James Cemetery Rising Sun WI; Kneeland Cemetery Seneca WI catholicchurchesofncc.com

Sunday, May 17^th, 2026

Ascension of the Lord

St. Mary, St. Patrick, St. Philip Parishes

Mailing address for all three parishes:   PO Box 35, Seneca WI 54654

Website: https://www.catholicchurchesofncc.com

Confessions: Normally,  30 minutes before every Mass and by appointment.

Normal Monthly Eucharistic Adoration:

St. Patrick: First Friday after the 8:30 AM Mass

St. Philip: First Sunday after the 10:30 AM Mass

Mass Intentions This Week

Pastor: Fr. Tom Huff – Rectory 608-734-3252 email: frtomhuff@gmail.com

Bookkeeper, Bulletin, Mass Intentions, Membership: Kevin Murray 608-391-0434 or 608-734-3931

email: secretary@ncc.diolcparish.org

New Bulletin Information Deadline: Mondays at 6:00 PM. Bulletin is posted on our website.

UPCOMING PARISH EVENTS

No special event this week to announce.

St. Mary Announcements:

Rosary – 30 minutes before Mass

First Sunday Potluck Brunch after Mass each first Sunday of the month. All are welcome, dish to share is appreciated, but not required. Next potluck is Sunday, June 7^th.

Saint Mary’s is open 7:00am – 7:00pm daily. Please feel free to come and pray and light a candle if you would like.

Food Pantry Donations can be left in the basket in the rear of the Church.

St. Philip Announcements:

St. Philip Candles: Contact Bonnie Murphy. The cost is $5 per candle.

Food Pantry items are needed. Please leave any gift at the rear of the Church.

A big thank you to Terry O’Donnell, who mows the church grounds and Harry Heisz who mows our cemetery. Everything looks fantastic. Thank you to Tom Murphy for supplying two loads of black dirt and Jerry Moran for hauling it to the cemetery. And thank you to Canisius Johnson and his family for hauling the wood away from the cemetery after a tree had fallen. All the help is greatly appreciated.

St. Patrick Announcements:

No announcements for this week.

Tri-Parish Announcements:

Sunday June 7^th is Corpus Christi; please join us at St. Mary Parish in procession with the Most Holy Sacrament of the Body of Christ after Mass from the Church, up Rebecca St. to Main St., and back to the Church. We will have stations along the way for each of our three parishes at which we will stop and pray. There will be a potluck brunch following. Everyone is invited!

For Mass Intentions, if donating by check, please make all checks payable to: St. Mary Stipend Fund.

Tri-Parish Adult Faith Study will be at St. Mary’s on Tuesday, May 19^th at 7:00 PM.

The Weekly Bulletin is available on our parishes website, this is the link to the bulletin page, updated every Friday: https://www.catholicchurchesofncc.com/bulletins

Other Announcements:

“Legacy of Love: Celebrating Decades of Married Life.”

We are pleased to introduce a new way of celebrating wedding anniversaries in our diocese! Couples celebrating milestone anniversaries 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th, 70th, or 80th will be invited to participate in “Legacy of Love: Celebrating Decades of Married Life.” This free event will begin with Mass and include pictures with Bishop Battersby followed by a simple reception. Each couple is invited to bring two guests with them.

Couples can register by calling Laura Boden at 608.791.2680 or emailing her at lboden@diolc.org.

Couples celebrating their 50th, 60th, 70th, 80th anniversary will also receive a special packet by mail, including a certificate and a letter of congratulations. We look forward to honoring the beautiful witness of married life with you!

August 9 2026: 1:00pm Holy Cross Diocesan Center, La Crosse

DIVINE MERCY IN MY SOUL - St. Faustina writes: “I saw the Mother of God, who said to me,… ‘I gave the Savior to the world; as for you, you have to speak to the world about His great mercy and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Him who will come, not as a merciful Savior, but as a just Judge…Speak to souls about this great mercy while it is still the time for granting mercy. ‘ “St. Faustina tells us: “O human souls,…take refuge now in the fount of God’s mercy.” (Diary 635, 848)

Tri-Parish Prayer List – We want to pray for the sick and others in our parishes who need ongoing prayer. To be placed on or to place someone on our prayer list, please call: Sue Peterson 608-735-4865, Bonnie Murphy 608-386-4954, or Ica Boylen 608-734-3287.

Fulton J. Sheen Prayer Request

Eternal Father, You alone grant us every blessing in Heaven and on earth, through the redemptive mission of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ, and by the working of the Holy Spirit.

If it be according to Your Will, glorify Your servant, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, by granting the favor I now request through his prayerful intercession:

The miraculous healing of Connor Murray

I make this prayer confidently through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Imprimatur: +Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C., Bishop of Peoria

Income from Last Week:

A sermon by Pope Saint Leo the Great:  Our Faith is increased by the Lord's Ascension

At Easter, beloved brethren, it was the Lord’s resurrection which was the cause of our joy; our present rejoicing is on account of his ascension into heaven. With all due solemnity we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up, in Christ, above all the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond the highest heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvelous when, in spite of the withdrawal from men’s sight of everything that is rightly felt to command their reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold.

For such is the power of great minds, such is the light of truly believing souls, that they put unhesitating faith in what is not seen with the bodily eye; they fix their desires on what is beyond sight. Such fidelity could never be born in our hearts, nor could anyone be justified by faith, if our salvation lay only in what was visible.

And so our Redeemer’s visible presence has passed into the sacraments. Our faith is nobler and stronger because sight has been replaced by a doctrine whose authority is accepted by believing hearts, enlightened from on high. This faith was increased by the Lord’s ascension and strengthened by the gift of the Spirit; it would remain unshaken by fetters and imprisonment, exile and hunger, fire and ravening beasts, and the most refined tortures ever devised by brutal persecutors. Throughout the world women no less than men, tender girls as well as boys, have given their life’s blood in the struggle for this faith. It is a faith that has driven out devils, healed the sick and raised the dead.

Even the blessed apostles, though they had been strengthened by so many miracles and instructed by so much teaching, took fright at the cruel suffering of the Lord’s passion and could not accept his resurrection without hesitation. Yet they made such progress through his ascension that they now found joy in what had terrified them before. They were able to fix their minds on Christ’s divinity as he sat at the right hand of his Father, since what was presented to their bodily eyes no longer hindered them from turning all their attention to the realization that he had not left his Father when he came down to earth, nor had he abandoned his disciples when he ascended into heaven.

The truth is that the Son of Man was revealed as Son of God in a more perfect and transcendent way once he had entered into his Father’s glory; he now began to be indescribably more present in his divinity to those from whom he was further removed in his humanity. A more mature faith enabled their minds to stretch upward to the Son in his equality with the Father; it no longer needed contact with Christ’s tangible body, in which as man he is inferior to the Father. For while his glorified body retained the same nature, the faith of those who believed in him was now summoned to heights where, as the Father’s equal, the only-begotten Son is reached not by physical handling but by spiritual discernment.